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A STEELE COUNTY SPORTS PIONEER

Lead Summary

A Steele County local through-and-through, one of Pat Heger’s claims to fame is that her Medford home is the second, original home in the woods of the town.
However, her house is far from the reason she is so well-known in Medford.
A retired physical education teacher at Medford high school, Heger is also a pioneer of girls sports at the high school.
Heger began her tenure at Medford in the fall of 1969 after graduating from Mankato State in the spring and quickly found herself involved in Medford athletics.
“Back when I started teaching, there were no high school sports for girls. So back in the spring of 1973, we started a track and field team for girls. This was back when Title IX was being enacted. And in the fall of 1973, we began a girls basketball team. Then came volleyball came next in 1974…  and I was the head coach of all of them for probably about 20 years,” said Heger.
Heger said that she took the coaching positions because she felt that the girls at the high school deserved the opportunity to play sports and compete.
“It didn’t just happen, you know, we had to get people on our side. Jerry Roberts, our athletic director at the time, was really helpful in trying to enact this in our school.”
Although Heger had experience playing basketball in college, she said that she had little to no previous experience in track and field or volleyball.
She said that she asked other coaches around the school for advice, determined to give her girls the best possible coaching.
It was at Medford that Heger also met her husband, John Gross.
Gross, the late football coach of Medford High School, is someone who Heger said was a major influence on her career at Medford.
“It was like having a coaching manual at home every day,” said Heger.
Like Heger, Gross kept his involvement in Medford athletics for as long as he could.
Even after she retired from Medford in 2014, Heger continued her involvement with the sports programs.
To this day, she helps officiate volleyball games, is the starter for the track and field team and coaches Medford’s junior varsity basketball team.
Loyal to her school, Heger has never worked anywhere else and said that it has been everything she could have asked for.
“Well, the best part I guess, is just being a part of the school and being a part of the school community. The people I worked with were just wonderful. I went in in 1969 and there were a lot of teachers who had been there for one, two, three, four years… so not real veterans. But I went in and learned tons from them about how to run class and sports.”
Heger said that she is thankful for her cast of supportive coworkers who helped her from the very beginning of her career and whom she became good friends with over the course of her career.
“The community is just so super supportive. And of course, John Gross.”

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